Tangible Hand Holding
by Xmarksthespot
Summary: Wally West didn't believe in a lot of things – not in aliens, not in vampires, not in fairies, not even vampires who sparkled like fairies. He especially didn't believe in ghosts. So why was there this pretty blonde girl in his new apartment searching for her murderer? AU Wal
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Tangible Hand Holding  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own YJ  
**Notes**: So I finished watching this Korean drama called _Arang and the Magistrate_, which is basically a ghost story (mixed with romcom), and I was inspired to do this, especially since it's Halloween.

**X-X-X-**

_List of Must-Haves for Wally West's new apartment:_

**1. Decent view of the city.**

The first thing Wally saw, much to his displeasure, was a graffiti covered brick wall and a string of underwear that was clothes pinned to the wire connecting his apartment to the adjacent building. He sighed at the sight, but accepted his fate and proceeded to carry the remaining boxes towards the living room area.

His mother was in the kitchen, carefully placing all the bowls and plates – and whatever else they could salvage in such a short amount of time – into the cabinetry. She hummed cheerfully to herself, contrasting Wally's grumbling and frequent yawns.

"Mom, I'm done with all of the boxes!" Wally called out, running a blade along the clear tape that locked the cardboard containers. One of the first things he unpacked was his conch shell, a souvenir from his favorite vacation to Happy Harbour beach some years ago.

With a nostalgic grin, the redhead stepped towards the balcony doors with the thought of sitting the conch by the lamp, just like where it was in his old home.

That is, until Wally glanced outside the glass windows and was flabbergasted at the sight of a random man standing in the alleyway, two floors down, taking a leak.

"Urgh. _Never_ looking out there again."

.

**2. Enough space in the bedroom for a mini fridge.**

By seven in the evening, Wally had finished unpacking, decorating his new room with school books and littering his closet with his somewhat-laundered clothes.

The room was small, much smaller than the one he had at Central, but thankfully, there was still room in the corner by his closet for one more thing: his mini-fridge.

Wally, for once that day, was pleased. With a crazy-fast metabolism, and late night snacking habits, the fridge was his sanctum.

Things were finally going well.

.

**3.** **Neighbours party only on appropriate holidays –gotta focus on school!**

With a strong science background (enough for a scholarship), and a somewhat "family" relation with _the_ Bruce Wayne – really, Wally was just a childhood friend of Bruce's adopted son, Dick Grayson, and an occasional chocolate chip cookie thief at the manor – Wally had somehow gotten himself into Gotham Academy.

But with school the following day, the sixteen year old realized that being in a prestigious school, taught by the finest professors, he would have to get caught up on other subjects, not just the sciences.

He sat himself down at the wooden desk that the previous owner of the apartment had kindly left behind for them, and cracked his knuckles, eager to zoom through his work, when suddenly he heard some noises that echoed from the floor above his. Glancing at the ceiling, the redhead frowned.

He would've hated it if his upstairs neighbours blasted hip hop music all day and night with sounds of clanking beer bottles and roaring laughter, but now, with the sounds of bed springs and loud _moans_, Wally wished that they were partyers instead.

"_Ohh! Yes!_"

Wally left his room in a blink of an eye. Maybe he should take a walk around the neighbourhood first – scope the area and find his way around the city – and hope that things would quiet down by the time he got back.

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**4. Neighbours are hot chicks.**

Wally smiled awkwardly outside of his apartment door, twitching to run out of the apartment as fast as he could.

"Hello, dearie. You must be the new neighbours," said the eighty-something year old who smiled sweetly.

"What?" The elder man behind her asked.

"We have new neighbours," the woman replied to her husband.

Now, Wally would've ditched them by now, but he didn't want to make a bad impression to the next door neighbours (after all the stories he's heard from Dick, he was slightly convinced that one wrong move and _anyone_ in that city could become a homicidal maniac). So in the end, he remained standing by the door, _iPod_ turned off and shoved in his jeans pocket as he watched the elderly couple bicker back and forth.

"What?" The old man asked again, cupping a hand around his ear as if to amplify what his wife was saying, or improve the quality of his _clearly_ worn out hearing device.

"NEW NEIGHBOURS."

Wally glanced at his watch and realized that it might be too late for a walk.

.

**5. No deaths or gruesome murders; not even wrinkly old seniors hitting their expiry date button within a 2 mile radius.**

Okay, so this was extremely hard to do considering it was _Gotham_ of all places, but Dick had insisted that this apartment was within a _one point five_ mile radius, death-free zone, disregarding a heart attack that happened over five years ago in the apartment two blocks down the street, but at least it was a chronic disease and not an ex-wife who poisoned her cheating husband (_that _happened at the first apartment Wally and his mother looked at).

And there's no actual real reason for him specifying this, he argued. He'd just rather not have mourners come knocking at his door, asking for some donations for their great-uncle's cousin, twice removed's funeral – or something like that.

Dick claimed it was because Wally was scared there'd be ghosts haunting around him, but _please_, as if ghosts existed.

"Are you going to bed, Wally?" Mary asked, but received a headshake from her son.

"Nah, I'm not that tired yet. Gonna go through some stuff to get ready for school tomorrow," Wally replied, heading for his bedroom.

And that's when he saw it.

When he saw _her_.

A girl, no older than he was, standing just by his bed, flipping through the pages of his astronomy books. She had a placid smile imprinted on her tanned face, a hint of fascination in her dark eyes. It didn't even occur to her that Wally was at the doorway, just staring – _studying_ – her.

The redhead was baffled. Craning his neck, he saw his mother unpacking in the living room, and only his and her shoes by the doorway; there were no guests.

Sighing, he stepped in and closed his door shut. He looked up again to see the girl move towards his book shelf, pulling herself up on her tippy toes to look at his picture frames and posters.

"Hey," Wally called out. He received no reply.

Peeved, he began to walk up closer to the stranger. "Hey, you!" He said again, just as the girl traced her fingers along his DVD and Blu-ray collection. Then he heard a snicker.

"_Baywatch_ on Blu-ray? Who in the world has _that_?" She said to herself.

"I do," Wally answered, taking another step so that he was right behind her.

She gasped, and her long, blonde hair almost whacked him in the face as she turned a full one-eighty, eyes widened when she saw him.

The stranger gulped as she looked at Wally once more, and was about to leap backwards when his hand grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at him, though paused another moment before letting a quieter realization pass her lips: "You can see me…"

Wally released his hold on her with a scowl.

"Yeah, I can. So either you leave _now_ or I'll _force_ you to leave."

.

.

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TBC

**X-X-X-**

**A/N**: Please leave a review and tell me what you think! :)

Happy Halloween, guys!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Tangible Hand Holding  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own YJ  
**Notes**: Thanks for the reviews/favs/follows, guys! :)

**X-X-X-**

_Wally West's To-Do List: September 14 & September 15_

**1. Get the girl (who's dosed with radioactive waste from the nuclear plants, causing her cells to mutate and therefore, only certain people with sharper senses can see her – and is definitely not a ghost, because ghosts don't exist) to leave bedroom.**

"Get out," Wally repeated, pointing towards his door.

The girl in front of him gaped at him, mouth ajar in disbelief. "No, this is _my_ room!" She proceeded to cross her arms and held her stance firmly. Her pink lips were twisted into a frown and she narrowed her dark brown eyes.

"Hey lady, if you haven't noticed, these are _my_ things, in _my_ room," Wally argued, stretching out his arm to emphasize his words. "Get out!"

The blonde smirked. "What are you going to do? Call the cops?"

Wally groaned and dropped his head into the palm of his hand. _This is _not_ what I had in mind when I asked Dick for an apartment with a hot neighbour_. Finally, he let out a loud exhale. "Fine, if you want to play it that way, I guess I'll have to _really_ force you to leave."

"And what do you mean by that?" She raised an eyebrow.

This time, it was Wally who gave a sly smile. "What? Did you really think you're the first one I've come across?"

There was a brief pause in between the two, as the mysterious stranger stared at Wally incredulously. But as the seconds flew by, her knuckles grew whiter and whiter while she grasped onto the sleeves of her brown cardigan; she was beginning to doubt herself.

Wally, on the other hand, was beaming with glee inwardly when he noticed the girl widening her eyes at the thought of what he could do. He continued to pester her: "Do you really want to know how it feels to be wiped away from this world?"

"Prove it," she snapped. "Prove that you can make me disappear."

He frowned, but held up his hands, surrendering to the girl's demands. "If you say so," he said before stepping passed the girl and towards a large duffle bag he had carelessly tossed in the corner earlier on.

Suddenly, the phone rang throughout the apartment and he could hear his mom's voice from the living room: "Wally, phone call!"

"Coming," Wally replied, but when he turned around to the doorway, the girl standing by his desk was already gone. He grinned. _Works every time._

.

**2. Call Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris**

"Hey Aunt Iris! Yeah, I know I said I'd call, but I got lost track of time with all the unpacking," Wally explained over the phone. He laid himself across his sofa, legs dangling over the arm rest. "Uh huh, yep…yeah sure, lemme talk to Uncle Barry."

"_Hey, kiddo!"_

Wally grinned as his favourite (and only) uncle was heard. "Hey, Uncle B. How's everything over there?"

"_Things are great! I learned how to change the twins' diapers today!"_

He laughed. "Right, only after Aunt Iris, my mom, and I learn how to."

"_Well I thought I was a pretty quick learner. You should be proud of me, kid."_

"Haha, I am. Congratulations, Uncle Barry. Don and Dawn are lucky to have you and Aunt Iris."

"_Thanks, Wally – oh, speaking of the twins, I think I'm hearing something from their monitors. I should probably go check up on them; your Aunt needs a break today_._ Hope everything goes well over on your side, kid!"_

"Alright, thanks. I'll call you again sometime later this week."

With that, Wally hung up. He really hoped things will go as well as his uncle said.

.

**3. Get to school – and not be late.**

The secretary of Gotham Academy looked up from the desk, eyes glinting with obvious annoyance that someone interrupted her.

At the sight, Wally gulped but handed her his transcript papers. He fidgeted with his tie as the secretary typed his name into the system, bothered by the school's _mandatory_ uniform, but told himself that, hey, if he had to wear uniforms, then so did the _girls_, which meant _skirts_.

His smile fell apart when the secretary pushed forward his homeroom schedule and demanded he get to class immediately.

"You're twenty minutes late," she told him.

And he was thirty-five minutes late by the time he found his first class, shifting awkwardly under the glares of prejudice of his classmates.

Throughout the day, as he was introduced in each class, he would scope out for the familiar dark haired boy who was his only hope for some sort of entertainment in this facility and had somehow skipped enough grades to be in Wally's year. He couldn't even find the former acrobat at lunch, despite sending mass texts to the boy two years his junior. But by third period, the class after lunch, there he was: Dick Grayson-Wayne sitting sleepily in the back corner of pre-calculus.

It just so happened that that back corner also had a free seat next to it, which Wally was thankfully assigned to.

"Dick, where have you been?" Wally whispered.

"Hey, don't call me that," the fourteen year old replied.

"It _is_ your name."

Dick rolled his eyes. "In that tone of voice, it's not."

The redhead ignored the comment. "I thought you said you were in three of my four classes and I haven't seen you all day."

"I was on the other side of Gotham for a Mathletes competition."

Wally fought back a snicker. "Dude, you're such a nerd."

Before Dick turned his head to focus back at the chalkboard, he said, "Says the kid who turned his old garage into a chemistry lab."

.

**4. Pay attention in class.**

"Pay attention, would ya, Scholarship?!"

Wally did _not_ like gym class. Sure he was fit, sure he was a runner, but _dodge ball_ was not his forte. He wasn't really appreciative of his new nickname either, though anything was better than _Wet Pants_, the nickname he had at his old school.

_The water fountain sprayed _once_ onto my pants, and I had to go through half of high school with that name_, Wally groaned inwardly, furious at his memories.

"Hey, Scholarship, catch!"

Before Wally could register what had happened, a dozen balls were thrown in his direction.

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**5. Get the girl to leave bedroom. Again.**

When Wally got home, his mother hadn't come back from work yet. He dove straight for the fridge for a light afterschool snack before heading into his bedroom. And while most boys would be thrilled to see a hot blonde lying on their bed, Wally was less than welcoming.

Tossing the apple core into his trash, he marched up to the girl flipping through his books. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He yelled. "Didn't I already tell you to leave? I warned you I would make you disappear."

The blonde casually flipped through to the next page. "You mean with your toys? I checked that duffle bag of yours – there's nothing for you to exercise me with!" Clever dark eyes looked up at him and her lips turned into a grin at his dumbfounded expression.

"You went through my stuff?" Wally was enraged; he had never had this big of a problem with her _kind_ before – they rarely pester him for this long.

She shrugged. "At least I'm honest. You know, Baywatch, lying is _really_ bad for your health." She flipped to the next page, eyebrow rising at an old photo of him and some friends as a kid bookmarked in between the pages.

He swiped the photo from her sight. "Argh! Get out!" He yelled.

She smirked. "_Make me_."

.

.

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TBC

**X-X-X-**

**A/N:** Please review and thank you! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Tangible Hand Holding  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own YJ  
**Notes**: Thanks for the love! I really appreciate your feedback and I'm sorry this chapter took so long.

**X-X-X-**

**Hey Wally, just wanted to write you this letter to say how much I'm going to miss you here at Central.**

It was late in the evening when Wally finally let out a groan in frustration, throwing his pencil aside and leaning back in his chair. It wasn't the math problems that were giving him trouble though, but rather, the blonde behind him, sprawled across his bed with a book in hand. Now, she wasn't particularly loud whenever she flipped the pages, but the idea that there was _someone_ else in the room was what bothered Wally the most; he just couldn't focus.

"What do I have to do to make you leave?" He asked, spinning around in his chair.

Tossing the item in her hands aside, she looked up. "You _could_ get better books."

"I'm serious here. You can't keep hanging out here all the time. Do you realize how difficult it is to concentrate when you're always floating around?"

"If you haven't noticed, I _have_ legs. I don't float like those stereotypical, crappy ghosts on TV."

_Ghosts don't exist, ghosts don't exist…_he repeated in his mind, but voiced: "Well I'm going to be studying a lot and I can't do that with you in the room. And what happens when I have friends over, and all I can focus on is trying to get you to _stop touching my stuff_," he said as he jumped from his seat and swiped a worn out journal from her grasp.

She snickered. "Really Baywatch, I may not have known you for long, but will you _really_ have _friends_ here?"

"Get out!"

.

**I wish your aunt and I had some room here for you and your mom – Don and Dawn would've loved you two – but I'm pretty sure Gotham won't have crying babies at three in the morning and trust me, you'll appreciate that more.**

His mother was finishing up in the kitchen by the time Wally stuck his head into the fridge, grabbing a bucket full of ice cream and shoving his face with it. Mary West always scolded him for doing that, especially when they were at his aunt's and uncle's house, but in times like this, he needed something to cool him down.

"Don't stay up too late, Wally, or you'll be late for the bus to school again," she told him.

Wally gulped down the rest of the double fudge brownie ice cream before replying, "Actually Dick offered to pick me up tomorrow, so I'm good. We have first period together, anyway."

She smiled warmly. "Oh that boy – you'll thank him again for doing all this for us, won't you?"

He bounced off of the counters and tossed his spoon into the pool of soap and water before throwing the empty container into the trash bin. "Will do, mom. Do you need any help here or is everything good?"

"S'all good, Wally."

"You took your medication?"

She nodded. "That reminds me, I left you some antacids in your backpack in case you eat yourself sick again at school – you don't want the same thing to happen at Gotham Academy's washrooms as your old school," she said with a chuckle.

"Mom!"

.

**Remember to stock up the mini fridge I got you so you won't get into trouble like last time, and if you **_**do**_** forget, try being a little more quiet when sneaking out into the kitchen at night, so your mom won't think you're a burglar.**

His room was a mess by the time he got back into it, which created an instant frown.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me! I _just_ finished setting everything up and _you_ had to go and ruin it!" He cried after shutting the door behind him. He waved his arms in exaggeration while he walked up to the blonde by his bookshelf.

She was reaching for another book when he grabbed hold of her wrist to stop her.

"I've only been here for _two_ days and you're already done reading all my books?" Wally asked, flabbergasted.

She rolled her eyes. "I haven't read _all_ of them, but you _only_ have science fiction and non-fiction books like some nerd. Honestly, don't you have any better books?"

"Like what?" Wally questioned, reaching out for all the books on his bed and stacking them back onto his shelf, grumbling complaints so low, she couldn't hear.

She shrugged. "I don't know; how about some action, or adventure? Books with vampires or aliens or –"

"Pfft," Wally couldn't help but snicker.

"What?" The girl snapped at him.

"Why would I read books on something that doesn't exist?" He asked as a matter-of-factly.

She gave him a face. "You don't believe in vampires or aliens?"

Finally finishing his cleanup work – though his books weren't in the particular order that he wanted them to be – Wally sat back down onto his chair, eager to finish up his pre-calculus homework and head to bed. He shook his head to reply to the blonde. "There are no such things as vampires, or fairies, or aliens," he listed. "No point wasting my time with trivial things."

"You can't even open up your mind a little bit? Just enough to get me some books?" She asked, feigning innocence. "I mean, ghosts exist, so why c—"

"Whoa, whoa there!" Wally held both of his hands up, spinning around to sit in a backwards position on his chair. "Who said anything about believing in ghosts?"

The girl stared at him incredulously, unsure if he was joking or not—it was a _really _bad joke if he was. "Are you actually saying you don't believe in ghosts? What would _I_ be then?"

He didn't miss a beat. "Radioactive mutation caused by –"

"You're kidding…"

"Look, there's no scientific explanation proving that ghosts exist. For all I know, you could be the product of some hallucinogenic effect made by my brain or something."

She snorted. "Baywatch, the idea of you being dropped on your head as a baby may be plausible, but I doubt your imagination is creative enough to create _me_."

.

**And keep up with school – I hear Gotham Academy has girls in uniforms, but don't let them distract you. Remember what I always tell you, kid: staring is unhealthy.**

"So I've been thinking…" The blonde said the moment Wally opened the door to his room.

"_Great_," Wally muttered sarcastically as he dropped his school bag onto the floor. The second day of school wasn't too bad aside from the fact that the teacher caught him and Dick talking in the middle of class and spent the rest of the period picking on the pair.

And for a kid being on scholarship—for science—he sure made a (foamy) mess in chemistry when Dick decided to do some _experimenting_. Okay, so he sort of encouraged the younger boy to pour in the beaker of hydrochloric acid that was _certain_ to erupt down the funnel. Wally hoped Mr. Wayne wasn't _too_ disappointed that within the first two days of school, he had managed to tarnish Dick's perfect reputation amongst the staff.

"So what did you spend the _entire_ day thinking about?" Wally asked, hoping that she'll discuss some real estate plans and relocating. But the sight of the girl sitting on his bed with crossed legs, Wally knew she looked _too _comfortable.

"We might as well be civil with one another," she said.

The redhead sighed. "…Why does that sound like you're not planning on leaving me alone any time soon?"

The blonde frowned in annoyance. "Look, you can yell at me and threaten me all you want and you can decorate this room however you want it, but this place?" She spread out her arms. "This is the _only_ place in the entire city that I feel most at peace with since I died. I don't know why, but don't you think you could _at least_ let me have some sort of comfort?"

Wally didn't respond.

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**Anyway, you know how much your aunt and I are going to miss you, so call us often! – Uncle Barry**

There were many carvings along the wooden framework of the desk that was left behind by the previous owners. Why there were hanged men or a bunch of foreign words, he didn't know, but there was one particular word that captured his attention—though since he and the girl had last spoken, just about _anything_ would grab hold of his interest.

_Freedom_.

The word was etched onto the corner of the desk, and it made Wally rethink this entire situation. He looked over to the other 'person' in the room with her back facing him and there was an unpleasant thought that came across his mind.

The girl was _caged_ here, in this apartment for no apparent reason. Even if Wally had to admit it—much to his displeasure—she was a…_ghost_, and was probably his age when she died.

If Wally were her, he'd be freaking out about leaving his mother, or not being there to watch Don and Dawn grow up and help his Aunt and Uncle with parenthood, or set up pranks with Dick. Wally didn't even want to think about the fact that the move to Gotham disrupted his learning process for getting his driver's license. He still hasn't had his first girlfriend either!

_Wally_ wouldn't be able to move on with that many worries and regrets running through his mind. So what about her?

.

**P.S. Ghosts aren't that bad, Wally. Don't ignore them.**

"So…" Wally began, leaning back on his chair; it captured the girl's attention as she looked up from one of his textbooks. "What's your name? You _do_ have a name, don't you?"

He watched her gulp, which only caused his curiousness to grow. Finally, with some hesitation, she answered.

"Of course I do, Baywatch!...It's...It's Alice."

He raised an eyebrow. "Alice?"

"Something funny?"

Wally nodded his head to the side, studying each of her facial features before admitting: "You don't look like an Alice…"

"_Look_ like an Alice?" She honestly looked offended. "_Please_, Alice fits me."

Still, he disagreed. With a shake of his head, he said, "Nah, Alice is too…too…" He paused. "Feminine –too _nice_ – it doesn't work for you."

"Whatever, _Wallace._"

"Hey!

And so, on that night, Wally decided he would help _Alice_ move on to the spirit world.

.

.

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TBC

**X-X-X-**

**A/N**: There's a reason why I called Artemis Alice in this fic... It's temporary, so all questions shall be answered within a few chapters. Until then, please review! :]


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